Man, that wrap is just the coolest!

Mike found that drum and emailed photos to me, I asked him to post it. Thanks Mike!

The snare drum is a 1940's 7"x14" version of my snare and it's in the same finish! ML told me the deep-dish version was dated to the 40's which helps me with dating my kit. Awesome looking drum and yes, it really is a unique, killer finish.

The shell of the 14" tom I'm working on cleaned up amazing. All those dark bands disappeared. I thought the finish had faded in spots, but it was just dirty/grimey and needed the old 3, 2, 1 punch from NOVUS. Photos later. I'm going to attempt tacking the reso head next.

John

Show me the broken lug parts.

I want a challenge.

Very Interesting lugs and rods.

Nice Job Man.

"That lug really pulled that room together" Jeff Lobowski

> I want a challenge.

LOL - I'm mailing you a challenge all for yourself today. All packed and ready to ship. Turn of the century Leedy-Light bass drum pedal... rust and all! I cleaned some rust off of the heel of the footboard just so you can see what's under all the crud.

John

Major hitch! I opened the tube that the calf head rounds came in and it's -clear- calfskin! Not white. I ordered the wrong calf skins. I just got off the phone with Stern Tanning and I'm looking at $175 just for the tacked heads. I'll have to order them so I can get the job done, but ouch! This one stings...

I guess we'll get back to the thread when the new (correct) heads arrive. Sorry, 'Rain Delay.'

John

I tacked the tom! (see photo) I had a torn at the edge 22" calf-skin Radio King head in the stash that I cut down and used on the 14" tom. The head was in excellent shape except for the edge tear, so I recycled it for this tom. I can't believe how great it turned out, I've never done a tacked head before. I did my homework, went step by step, and the results speak for themselves. I ordered the other two blank calf heads I need to finish the other 13" & 16" toms in the job.

Bev took a couple of shots of me while I was tacking and trimming the head. I'll post those up later. Moving and grooving... working on the wood hoop at the moment. Finished drum soon!

John

Dang John your fast!! I didn't expect to see the tacked head tom for a while. Good thinking using the old RK 22 skin. Those do not look fun to do either. After seeing Gary's (Kona) old thread when he did his it looked like Spiderman vs vintage drums. LOL. Came out great though. Nice job John!

Quick 'How-to' about the tacked calf head.

I had to carefully remove the old torn head and rusty tacks. A tack puller came in real handy for that job. I cleaned the shell and dressed the bearing edges by sanding with 00-00 steel wool and bee's wax. It was especially important to seal the reso side bearing edge because I was going to drape wet calf skin on it and I didn't want the wood at the bearing edge damaged by the moisture. The bee's wax took care of that.

I didn't want to re-use the old tack holes so I mapped out the new hole sequence and marked it with a permanent blk Sharpie so the marks would be visible through the calf skin. (see photo)

Next, I soaked the calf skin in warm water for about ten minutes until it was completely soft. It's creepy, once it's wet it actually feels like live skin... yuck. I draped it over the bearing edge and I used the 1" wide brass ring that serves as a tom holder for the drum to push down and stretch the calf skin onto the shell. I left it in place to dry in that position/shape. I removed the retaining ring and the head and soaked it again for a second stretching. I remounted the head and pulled the ring down tighter around the calf skin forming it to the shell. This time, while it was still wet, I went around and added the first row of tacks, followed by the second row. (see photo)

I allowed the skin to cure/dry for about 8 hours before trimming away the excess. I slipped a sheet of clear plastic in between the drum wrap and the calf and then I went around with a utility blade and trimmed off the extra above the second row of tacks. Again I used the metal ring to establish a straight line cut around the shell. (see photo of trimming in progress)

And Viola! The finished product!!!

Not bad for a first-time calf-head tacker!

Nice job John.

Reminds me of my user name.:D

Thanks. What I was happy about was that I was able to use the Radio King logo from the old head! The skin looks lop-sided on the shell because I wanted to center the logo at the top edge of the drum as if it was made for it. It looks cool and it's 'period correct' so it's all good.

I'm sanding and adding some poly to the hoop. It had a natural finish, so I didn't want to paint it black. Although painted black, all the tom hoops would match the bass drum. I've opted to leave them the way they made them, natural finish.

John